


Hope

by Kittenmommy



Series: Loki and Pepper Potts: Conversations, Drinks, and Other Really Bad Ideas [13]
Category: Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Humor, Established Relationship, F/M, Language, Nick Fury swears even more than Tony, Tony Stark swears a lot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-31
Updated: 2012-07-31
Packaged: 2017-11-11 02:40:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/473585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kittenmommy/pseuds/Kittenmommy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony says the first thing that occurs to him: “Pepper will be <i>really</i> pissed if you kill me.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hope

**Author's Note:**

> _The Avengers_ belongs to Marvel.
> 
> "[Teenage Dream](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98WtmW-lfeE)" belongs to Katy Perry.

Once again, Tony has fallen asleep at the computer desk in his workshop.

“Sir,” JARVIS says.

Tony groans.

“Sir, wake up.”

“Timesit?”

“It is one forty-three in the afternoon, sir. Miss Lokidóttir is here.”

“What?” 

Tony sits up and blinks sleep from his eyes. 

Hel is standing by his workbench, looking down at him, and he suddenly wonders how long she’d been watching him sleep before JARVIS decided to wake him.

At least he hadn’t been sleeping in a puddle of his own drool… _this_ time.

“Hel… wow.” He yawns, stretches. “I wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon.”

“Is this an inopportune time, Anthony Stark?” she asks, eyes downcast.

“No, no. Not at all. It’s fine. And call me Tony.”

“Tony,” she murmurs, still not looking at him.

“You made a decision.” It’s not a question.

She nods.

“So…ah… what did you decide?”

She finally meets his eyes.

“I have decided to hope,” she says, and gives him a smile.

He feels the big goofy grin spreading across his face.

“JARVIS, find Doctor Banner for me. Warn him that we’re on our way!”

* * *

They find Bruce in Lab Three, bent over something bubbling away over a Bunsen burner.

He looks up as Tony and Hel enter.

“Bruce, my man,” Tony says, and ushers Hel forward. “This lovely young lady is Hel.”

“I am neither lovely nor young.”

“Oh, _you_ ,” Tony says. “Hel, this is Doctor Banner.”

“Hel,” Bruce says, extending his hand. 

Remembering Thor, Tony doesn’t expect Hel to know what to do. But she surprises him by reaching for Bruce’s hand.

“I am very pleased to make your acquaintance, Doctor Banner.”

“Call me Bruce,” he says warmly. “It’s very nice to meet you, Hel. Wow, you sure do look like your dad.”

“Yes,” she agrees softly, and looks at the floor.

Tony and Bruce exchange a look.

“And,” Bruce continues, “you’re cold like him.” He places a hand on her forehead and frowns. “Maybe even colder, actually. Except for when he’s blue.”

“My mother was full Jötun,” she says.

“Angrboða,” Tony says, and Bruce looks at him. Tony shrugs. “Been doin’ my homework.”

“Yes,” Hel says.

“Yeah but… your dad _hates_ Jötuns,” Tony blurts out without thinking.

“My mother was in love with him, the younger Prince of Asgard.” Hel says quietly. “But his hatred of the Jötunar was known throughout the Nine Realms. And so she cast an enchantment upon herself so that in every way she appeared as the Æsir do, and then she enticed him with wine to lie with her.”

There is a long silence.

“O… kaaaay,” Tony finally says. “Wow. That’s… kind of creepy, right? Did she slip him a roofie, too?”

She frowns. “I don’t understand.”

“Yeah, that’s OK. How do you want to start here, Bruce?”

“Well, let’s go with the basics,” he replies. He looks up at the ceiling. “JARVIS, please begin recording.”

“Yes, Doctor Banner.”

“All right. Hel, tell me about your problem.”

“If I leave the Realm of the Dead, I begin to rot.” She shrugs. “There is not much else to tell.”

“OK, so when you leave, how long before onset?”

“Not long. Minutes, perhaps.”

“And what areas are affected?”

She holds out her hands and looks down at them. Her fingertips are black. “It begins with my fingers and toes, and spreads upwards to my entire body.”

“Interesting,” Bruce murmurs, and Tony imagines he can hear the wheels turning inside his head. “Next time we meet, I’d like to do it at a hospital and do a full work-up. I didn’t have enough notice to make those kind of arrangements today. So for right now I’d like to take some blood, if I may?”

Hel’s emerald eyes are huge.

“All right,” she agrees, sounding apprehensive. She licks her lips nervously. “Where will you cut me?”

“Cut you… _no_ , no,” Bruce says. “It’s just a little needle, that’s all. You’ll barely even feel it, I promise. I just need you to pull up one of your sleeves.”

“And maybe she should sit down,” Tony suggests.

“Yeah, that’s not a bad idea.” 

Tony guides Hel over to a stool by the lab bench as Bruce begins gathering his equipment.

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing,” Tony reassures her. 

Bruce goes to the sink to wash his hands.

“Just a little stick, and it’ll all be over,” Tony is saying.

Bruce comes over, pulling on gloves.

“All right, just let me tie this around your arm,” he says, and ties the rubber tourniquet. 

She frowns but says nothing.

“It’ll make your veins pop out really nicely. See?”

She looks down at the crook of her elbow, where her veins are now standing out like ropes.

“This is just alcohol,” Bruce says, and swabs the inside of her arm.

She looks up at Tony, biting her lip.

“It’s OK,” Tony soothes, and puts his arm around her shoulders. “It’ll hardly hurt at all. You’ll see.”

“I’m really good at this,” Bruce says modestly. “Everyone tells me they barely even feel it.” He produces the needle. “You don’t have to watch if you don’t want to. Are you ready?”

She nods, still biting her lip.

Bruce takes her arm and smoothly slides the needle into her protruding vein.

She gives a little cry and buries her face in Tony’s neck.

“It’s OK, it’s OK,” Tony murmurs, stroking her hair with his free hand. It’s incredibly soft.

“That’s the first tube,” Bruce says. “How’re you doing, Hel?”

She makes a little noise.

“She’s doing _great_ ,” Tony says emphatically, still stroking her hair. “Aren’t you, Hel?”

She whimpers against his neck.

“That’s the second tube,” Bruce tells her. “Only two more.”

“You can do it, honey,” Tony says, and frowns. _Honey?_ he thinks. _Shit, where did_ that _come from?_

“Third tube,” Bruce says. “Almost done!”

“I feel… _odd_ ,” she says, and swallows hard.

“No, no, Hel, look at me,” Tony tells her.

She raises her face from his neck and looks up at him. Her eyes are so green that they’re almost unreal.

“That’s right, just keep looking at me.”

“Done!” Bruce says, and he’s releasing the tourniquet. He puts an alcohol pad in the crook of her elbow and bends her arm up.

“See? It’s all over,” Tony says, and he’s grinning from ear to ear. “You did it!”

“I did it,” she agrees faintly, and puts her head on his shoulder as Bruce bandages her miniscule wound.

“So, I’m going to run pretty much every test I can think of on these,” Bruce says, picking up the tubes full of blood.

“What will that tell you?” she murmurs.

“Don’t know yet,” Bruce admits. “I’d also like to schedule an MRI. It sounds like your… ah, _condition_ is progressive and rapid. I’d like to get a full body scan of you as it’s in progress. Would that be OK?”

Hel glances up at Tony apprehensively.

“Don’t worry, it won’t hurt,” Bruce reassures her. “At _all_. You just lie in a big noisy machine, and it doesn’t even _touch_ you.”

“All right,” she agrees with a nod. “There is only one thing that I would ask of you both.”

Bruce exchanges a look with Tony.

“Sure,” he says.

“OK,” Tony agrees.

“I would ask that you not tell my father about this,” she says quietly. “I don’t want…”

“To give him hope,” Bruce finishes gently. “Right?”

She nods silently, the tears slipping down her cheeks.

“Oh, Hel,” Tony sighs, and if his arm tightens around her just a bit little more, well, that’s only natural. 

Isn’t it?

* * *

In the kitchen area of the floor in Stark Tower that has been set aside for the Avengers’ use, Fury is overseeing the preparations for the upcoming party.

“Aw, _hell no_!” he’s saying, and points. “Take those away _now_.”

“But sir, Mister Stark ordered them,” the caterer says.

“I don’t care _what_ he ordered. I’m not having any motherfucking pies at this motherfucking party. Are we clear on that?”

She gulps. “But Mister Stark said – ”

“I did not ask you about Mister Stark. I asked you, ‘ _are we clear on that_ ’?”

“Yes, sir,” she whispers, and takes the pies away.

“And this is why we can’t have nice things,” Clint says, walking in with Natasha.

Fury rounds on him.

“You know goddamn well why you can’t have nice things. It’s all your own damn fault!”

Clint laughs, and Fury glares.

“We’ll be on our very best behavior tonight, Director Fury,” Natasha assures him.

“And yet for some reason, that doesn’t make me feel any better,” Fury tells her.

“Tony’s come a long way,” Clint says. “He’s cool now… or _cooler_ , anyway. I don’t think we’ll have any problems. What he and Bruce are trying to do for Hel… there’s _no way_ he would have agreed to that before, let alone come up with the idea himself.”

Fury is frowning. “Hell?”

Clint and Natasha exchange a look.

“He didn’t tell you,” Natasha says. “Interesting.”

“No he did not. So why don’t the two of you fill me in?”

* * *

Hel has departed, and Bruce is putting the blood samples away to deal with later.

“Timid little thing, isn’t she?” Bruce asks. 

“Timid, yeah. Little? Not so much. She’s almost as tall as Loki!”

“She _seems_ smaller, though,” Bruce muses. “The way she seems to hunch over, like she wants to disappear. Not really what you’d expect from the Queen of Hell.”

“And Loki’s daughter,” Tony adds. “Loki is lots of things, but shy and ‘timid’ are _really_ not among them!”

“Maybe she takes after mom?”

Tony snorts. “Hel really doesn’t seem like the type to roofie a guy.”

“She _did_ give you a pretty good kiss though, didn’t she?”

“Yeah.” He frowns. “I wonder what _that_ was about, anyway.”

Bruce shrugs. “Ask her next time. Think she’ll be at the party?”

“I don’t know. I think the rest of the gang kind of freaks her out… and she hasn’t even _met_ Fury yet! And speaking of Fury…”

“Yeah, you don’t want him to know anything about this, right?”

“Not a peep. I told JARVIS to lock everything down and to code it only to our voiceprints. If Fury finds out about this, he will _use it_. And that’s not what this is about.”

“Oh, yeah, I definitely agree.”

“Good. Let’s hope you can figure out what’s going on with her.”

Bruce sighs. “It would be helpful if we had a normal member of her species to compare her with.”

“Yeah, OK, I’ll just call up Jötunheim and ask them to… wait a minute. Loki!”

“She doesn’t want him to know about this,” Bruce reminds him. 

“Hmm. I wonder if we could convince him that we just want – ”

Bruce suddenly grins. 

“We don’t have to involve him at all. Everything we need is in his hospital records: bloodwork, scans, _everything_. And since I’m his doctor of record, I can access all of it!”

“Good thinkin’! Transfer copies of everything over to JARVIS, too; he might see something you miss.”

“Uhhh, no can do, Tony. Unless I had Loki’s express written permission, that’d be a HIPAA violation.” 

While Tony thinks about this, Bruce braces himself for the inevitable argument.

“All right, Bruce. I wouldn’t want you to do anything illegal or unethical. We’ll just figure out something else.”

Bruce blinks.

“I’m… thank you for being so understanding.”

Tony shrugs. “The law’s the law, right?”

And now Bruce is eyeing him suspiciously.

“Tony…”

“So anyway, you can get to work on all this tomorrow. If it’s physical, maybe you can find a cure.”

“And if it’s magical?”

Tony sighs. “We’ll destroy that bridge when we get to it.”

Bruce laughs.

“All right, listen, I’m outta here,” Tony says, moving toward the door. “If you think of anything else, call me. Otherwise, see you at the party later.”

“Sounds good!”

Tony leaves and makes his way back to his workshop. 

When he’s finally inside, he speaks:

“JARVIS, get us those hospital records.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And some music?”

The distinctive creepy piano intro of “Don’t Pay The Ferryman” begins, and Tony sighs.

“Wrong mythology, JARVIS. You naughty computer! Haven’t you been doing your reading?”

* * *

Pepper hasn’t been back to Stark Tower since the night she packed up all of her things and walked out on Tony.

So she is quite surprised when JARVIS grants them entry without any sort of fuss.

“Tony must have authorized me for the evening,” she says as she and Loki board the elevator.

“No, Miss Potts,” JARVIS says. “Mister Stark has not deleted any of your authorizations from my systems.”

She blinks at this.

“OK…”

Loki smiles. “He probably still has hope that you will one day tire of me and return to him.”

“Yeah, that’s not going to happen.”

The elevator _dings_ and the doors open onto the living area of the Avengers’ floor.

Clint and Natasha are _very_ close together on the sofa. He has a beer and she has a glass of clear liquid that Pepper suspects isn’t water.

As Pepper and Loki walk out of the elevator, Clint and Natasha look up.

“Hey, Avengers!” Clint yells. “The guest of honor just showed up, so you’d better assemble your asses out here!”

Steve comes into the living room, a bottle of grape soda in hand.

“Miss Potts, Ma’am,” he says. “And Laufeyson. It’s good to see you up and around again.”

“It is good to be so,” he murmurs.

Tony appears, scotch in hand.

“Hey, Loki. How’s the new brain working out for you so far? Nice and roomy? Didja get a chance to kick the tires and take it for a test drive?”

“There are times that I do not understand you _at all_ , Stark.”

“Ha! Join the club!” Natasha calls from the sofa.

“Pepper,” Tony says warmly, and kisses her cheek.

“Thank you for doing this, Tony. It’s very nice of you.”

“Yeah, you know me – Mister Nice,” he replies modestly. “Hey, want a drink?” He points at one of the caterers, snapping his fingers. “Hey, you! Drinks. Now!”

She scurries over. “What would you like?”

Pepper shrugs. “A glass of red wine, please?”

The caterer looks at Loki.

“The same,” he murmurs.

“What did I just say about you being nice?” Pepper asks with a sigh.

“Yeah, I know. You take it back, right?”

“Are we going to have to have yet _another_ discussion about how to treat the staff, Tony?” she asks.

“Nah, it won’t sink in anyway, so why bother?”

The caterer reappears with the glasses of wine, and then scurries off again.

“Uh, sorry!” Tony calls after her, a bit belatedly.

Pepper just shakes her head.

Bruce appears in the doorway connecting the living area with the dining room. 

“Hey, everyone,” he calls. “I, uh, well, there’s a surprise.”

“What kind of surprise?” Tony asks, and Bruce grins.

“Get them to set another place at the table,” Bruce says. 

He moves aside, ushering someone forward, a very tall someone in an emerald green gown embroidered in golden thread.

“Hel!” Loki exclaims, nearly dropping his wineglass. “I don’t believe it!”

“I’ll take that,” Tony says and smoothly relieves him of it.

Loki runs forward as Hel enters the room. He catches her around the waist and spins her around before setting her back on her feet.

They’re both laughing and holding each other tightly. Loki leans down, pressing his forehead against hers. His eyes are closed and he looks happier than Pepper has ever seen him.

“Looks like your surprise was a hit,” Tony says dryly.

Finally, they separate.

“Everyone, this is – ” Loki begins.

“Hel,” Natasha finishes for him. “We’ve met.”

Loki frowns. “What? When?”

“Last night,” Clint says.

“Yeah, she just showed up in the kitchen while Tony was making a bologna sandwich,” Steve explains.

Loki is staring at Hel in disbelief. “You did _what_?”

Before Hel can reply, Natasha unfolds herself from the sofa (and Clint) and walks over. “It is good to see you again, Hel.”

“Yes, likewise,” Hel says softly, looking at the floor.

The elevator _dings_ and its doors open to dispense Fury.

He stares.

“Who’s _this_?” he finally asks.

Loki puts a protective arm around Hel’s shoulders. 

“This Hel, Director Fury. My daughter.”

“Ohhh.” Fury goes over to them and extends his hand. “I am _very_ pleased to meet you, Hel,” he says warmly. “Welcome.”

She eyes him warily before taking his hand, and that’s when Pepper sees that she’s wearing black gloves.

One of the caterers appears, glancing uncertainly around the room.

“Uh… if everyone is ready…?”

“Looks like dinner is served!” Tony says, and they all head for the dining room.

* * *

Dinner – which much to Loki’s delight, turns out to be roasted wild boar – is served and glasses are filled (and refilled). 

Pepper is a little surprised to see that Hel matches Tony, scotch for scotch. She sees that Loki is watching this too, but he does not comment.

And finally, dessert (which turns out to be chocolate cake) is served.

Tony frowns. “Wait a minute. I _specifically_ ordered pies!”

“Don’t fuckin’ _provoke me_ , Stark,” Fury says, glaring.

After dessert, they adjourn to the living room with their drinks.

Loki chooses a seat, and Hel sits with him, laying her head on his shoulder. Pepper sits on his other side.

Clint and Natasha curl up together on a sofa; Pepper idly thinks that it might take a crowbar to separate them.

Bruce and Steve flop down on another sofa. Steve has stuck with grape soda, but Bruce has decided to be naughty and is indulging in a single beer. After a moment, Fury goes to sit with them.

And Tony is sitting by himself, scotch in hand.

“Well,” Loki says quietly. “Thank you all for such an enjoyable evening.”

“Hey, no problem, buddy,” Steve replies.

“It was fantastic,” Hel says dreamily. She sounds like she’s half-asleep.

“Too much scotch,” Pepper murmurs in Loki’s ear.

“Yes, I believe so,” he agrees.

“I have been watching Midgard,” Hel suddenly says. “What else have I to do? I reign over the dead and watch the living, wishing…”

“Shhh,” Loki soothes. He kisses the top of her head.

“No, no,” she says, and hauls herself to her feet. She somehow manages to retrieve her glass of scotch from the coffee table. “I have been watching!”

“O… kay,” Tony agrees, watching her. She’s swaying a bit drunkenly.

“Hel,” Loki says quietly. “Perhaps it’s time for you to – ”

She smiles dreamily. “Yes, it is.”

She makes her wobbly way over to where Tony sits and flops down next to him, sloshing scotch everywhere.

“Hey, Hel… are you OK?” he asks, sounding concerned. He takes her glass away and puts it on the table next to his sofa.

“I am… _great_ ,” she replies, and snuggles up against him so that she’s practically in his lap. She drapes an arm around his neck and puts her head on his chest.

There is a very long silence as everyone’s eyes dart to Loki, to see how he’s taking this new development.

And then Hel begins to sing softly, dreamily:

“I finally found you, my missing puzzle piece. I’m complete.”

“Oh boy, this can only end badly,” Clint says. His words are belied by the fact that he’s leaning forward in his seat, grinning in eager anticipation.

And Hel is still singing: “Let’s go alllllll the way tonight, no regrets, just love. We can dance until we die, you and I, we’ll be young forever!”

Pepper puts a hand on Loki’s arm, though she knows that there’s no way she can keep him in his seat if he chooses to go after Tony.

“You make me feel like I’m living a teenage dream, the way you turn me on. I can’t sleep, let’s run away and don’t look back, don’t ever look back,” Hel croons softly. 

Loki pulls free of Pepper’s hand, stands and walks over to Tony and Hel.

Everyone tenses.

And Hel keeps singing, oblivious:

“I’ll get your heart racing in my skintight jeans, be your teenage dream tonight. Let you put your hands on me in my skintight jeans, be your teenage dream tonight…”

“Hel,” Loki says softly.

She stops singing and looks up him.

Tony doesn’t move, and his eyes are as big as saucers.

“Hel,” Loki repeats, and holds out his hand. “I think it is time to go.”

“Ohhh,” she frowns, and then takes his and hand and allows him to pull her to her feet.

He enfolds her in his arms, and then they’re both just gone.

Tony exhales explosively.

“This has been one _hell_ of a fucking evening,” Fury says, rising to his feet.

“Pun intended?” Clint asks, and Fury glares murderously at him.

“Don’t _fucking start with me_ , Barton! I am in _no fucking mood_!”

Clint stands, pulling Natasha up with him.

“Hey Tony,” he calls. Tony looks up at him. “Better sleep with one eye open, pal,” he advises with a grin.

* * *

Tony does better than that.

“Stark,” a soft voice says. Someone is shaking his shoulder. “Wake up.”

Tony groans. 

“Timesit?”

“It is three seventeen in the morning, sir,” JARVIS tells him promptly. “And Mister Laufeyson is here.”

Tony suddenly realizes that he’s extremely uncomfortable, probably because he’s in his armor.

He’s sitting on the sofa in his armor.

He’s been sitting on the sofa in his armor, sleeping.

What?

And then the events of the previous evening come back to him and he opens his eyes and on the HUD he sees – 

“Loki!” he exclaims. “Shit!”

Loki is sitting on the sofa with him. He has a half-full glass of scotch in his hand and he looks very tired.

“Stark…”

Tony says the first thing that occurs to him: “Pepper will be _really_ pissed if you kill me.”

Loki sighs and puts his glass down on the coffee table.

“Yes, Stark. My diabolical plan was to come here and kill you for being kind to my daughter. My most sincere congratulations on working it out so quickly. Did you perhaps have help from JARVIS?”

He picks up a crystal decanter from the coffee table and pours another drink, which he offers to Tony.

Cautiously, Tony flips his faceplate up, raising his gauntlet just in case.

Loki rolls his eyes.

“Honestly, Stark. You certainly do know how to try my patience. Shall I turn your ridiculous armor to a plastic costume again?”

“Shit, I forgot about that.” He lowers his gauntlet a bit sheepishly.

“Probably because you are _still_ drunk,” Loki tells him helpfully.

“Oh, yeah, maybe.” He pulls off both of his gloves, takes the offered glass from Loki and sips the scotch gratefully. “Thanks.”

Loki picks up his own drink and takes a sip.

It is a moment before he speaks.

“Stark, you must understand… Hel… she is…” He sighs.

“She’s… a very special person,” Tony says cautiously.

“She is in many ways still a child. A complete innocent in every sense of the word. She has… no real experience of this realm… of _any_ of the Nine Realms aside from Niflheim.”

“Not even Asgard?” 

Loki sighs again. 

“She was so young when my father cast her out… she has spent her life watching life from afar rather than actually _living_. She knows much of the other realms, but…”

“But watching isn’t the same as _doing_.”

“So you see.”

For a moment, they drink together in silence. 

“For reasons that are quite beyond me, she has taken a liking to _you_ , Stark. And I am glad to see her taking an interest in _living_ , in venturing beyond Niflheim.”

Loki finishes his drink and comes to his feet.

“You seem to have given her reason to venture outside of Niflheim despite her… ah… _infirmity_ , and so I find myself in your debt.”

Tony gapes up at him. This interview is _really_ not going the way he had expected.

“You’re… welcome?”

Loki gazes down at him with hooded emerald eyes.

“But since you seem to have expected me to come here as the overprotective father, I shall not disappoint. If you hurt her in _any_ way or if _any_ harm should come to her because of you and yours, you will suffer for it. And I _do_ mean that _literally_ , Tony Stark. I am a _very_ creative person; do not give me reason to demonstrate this.”

And then he is gone.

“Well, shit.”

Tony gulps down the rest of his scotch, retrieves his gloves, and snaps down his faceplate.

It is a long time before he falls asleep.

FINIS.

**Author's Note:**

> References:
> 
> _Snakes on a Plane_
> 
> Chris de Burgh's "[Don't Pay The Ferryman](http://www.4shared.com/mp3/1uvRTV3I/01_Dont_Pay_The_Ferryman.html?)"
> 
> Katy Perry, "Teenage Dream".


End file.
